Something extremely weird just happened. I heard a pop inside my desktop, causing the whole thing to shut down. When I try to turn it on, next thing I know the CPU fan is no longer spinning (all is properly connected), while the GPU fan (ASUS 5870) is spinning at max making all the noise it possibly can make. Nothing would show up on the screen, no BIOS, no nothing, just a black monitor waiting to detect something.

I honestly have no clue what to do. I removed the GPU, shut everything down, retry to turn it back on, same thing. Am I supposed to contact a technician? I'm out of ideas.

I tried disconnecting and replugging just about everything. GPU, RAM, etc... The PC's been working fine for months now, however, it's not even a year old. Did the CMOS, removed battery, and visually, I don't see anything wrong with any of the components. Thanks in advance.

Something extremely weird just happened. I heard a pop inside my desktop, causing the whole thing to shut down. When I try to turn it on, next thing I know the CPU fan is no longer spinning (all is properly connected), while the GPU fan (ASUS 5870) is spinning at max making all the noise it possibly can make. Nothing would show up on the screen, no BIOS, no nothing, just a black monitor waiting to detect something.

I honestly have no clue what to do. I removed the GPU, shut everything down, retry to turn it back on, same thing. Am I supposed to contact a technician? I'm out of ideas.

I tried disconnecting and replugging just about everything. GPU, RAM, etc... The PC's been working fine for months now, however, it's not even a year old. Did the CMOS, removed battery, and visually, I don't see anything wrong with any of the components. Thanks in advance.

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one of the capacitors, on your mobo, or in your PSU is blown... if exchanging the PSU wont help... take a closer look at your mobo capacitors... if one is bulged, your board probably is dead. repairable, but dead.
it should look like this: notice the small cracks in the top of the midst capacitor, and the stains from leaked electrolyte

I looked at every single one of them with my moonbeam and they look just fine, at least on the outside.

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They could just look a little "bulgy." Even if there is no magically brown juice on the outside, they could still be blown. Even just a little means it can be dead. Good news is they are dead simple to replace and cost about $0.10 a piece!

I also tried turning the thing on with the 300W PSU from my old desktop. Everything turns on except the CPU fan. And then I try putting a different CPU fan, and that one won't spin either, with or with the GPU inserted.

I also tried turning the thing on with the 300W PSU from my old desktop. Everything turns on except the CPU fan. And then I try putting a different CPU fan, and that one won't spin either, with or with the GPU inserted.

I do not think this will solve the issue . I think the MB is gone . Even if your CPU fan was working and all does it boot up ? Get any video any thing at all . If not the MB is gone . Thing is it could have taken RAM CPU PSU Video card along with it as well . Just no telling what has happened till you get the MB issue worked out .

I wish I could agree so I could at least get the problem narrowed down, but I keep looking and looking and nothing looks out of the ordinary. The caps are also not as the ones shown in the first pic, they look more attached to the mobo and out of like 40, only a couple are big.

Also, a Gigabyte board died on me once, just a couple of minutes after the first usage the OS freezes and the MB never booted again, I took it back to the reseller ('cause I didn't found how to fix it) and they never found what the heck make the board fail too, they gave me a new one and It never fails me again (It's the MB of my current rig)

Also, a Gigabyte board died on me once, just a couple of minutes after the first usage the OS freezes and the MB never booted again, I took it back to the reseller ('cause I didn't found how to fix it) and they never found what the heck make the board fail too, they gave me a new one and It never fails me again (It's the MB of my current rig)

So I moved to CA from NY and finally got settled and ready to deal with this problem. Coming to the conclusion that the problem was indeed the motherboard, I sent it to the folks at Gigabyte who are coincidentally are located a few miles to my west. I received the repaired product after about a week.

Hooked everything up, CPU fan spins again, GPU looking good, I see the BIOS and... "Eureka!" was my first thought, right before I see the "Loading Operating System..." on the screen. The BIOS will no longer detect the OS HDD. Switched cables around and no go, it will detect all other HDD's but the main one. Hard Drive won't budge, vibrate, spin, or do anything a regular HDD would do. Not even when using it as an external.

Figured it simply died, perhaps at the time the motherboard went with it last year. I call Western Digital customer service (very useless if I may add) and of course they have no clue what may have happened to the HDD and have no suggestions whatsoever. Stupid me haven't backed up the data in that HDD in quite a long time and as a last resort, I'm considering sending it to the folks at drivesavers.com, unless someone has a better suggestion.

Also, when shaking it, it sounds as if there are some sort of particles inside the HDD. Any clue what that might be?

It's all good that you got your PC working again, but I think the cause of problem was never found. You might have foud it now.
When my old Maxtor died I heard a pop too, but that was when I accidentally connected Molex power connector in reverse. How is it related to your dead MB - I think you should check PSU voltages if it's the same PSU that was connected, when MB died. Bad/dying PSU could have killed your MB and HDD. Now it could happen again.

or the mobo took it with it... mine did the same thing while i installed a gts450 and got to watch the mosfets arc electricity and catch fire (part on the board that does the cpu voltage phases). so far everything that was on the board is fine except for one Sata hard drive. (don't know about cpu yet, haven't been able to get another am3 board) but ram was ok, using it now in my current rig.

or the mobo took it with it... mine did the same thing while i installed a gts450 and got to watch the mosfets arc electricity and catch fire (part on the board that does the cpu voltage phases). so far everything that was on the board is fine except for one Sata hard drive. (don't know about cpu yet, haven't been able to get another am3 board) but ram was ok, using it now in my current rig.

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Nothing like the feeling of losing an non-backed up HDD... Does make me wonder, how come it didn't do anything to the other 3 HDD's that were in the rig with it?

If they are different manufacturer, then they could have been "stronger" and withstand that possibly higher voltage.

*edit* to rule out all posibilities - Did you check PSU voltages?

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2 of the 3 survivors are Western Digital. The only difference I could think of between the OS HDD and the rest, is that the OS HDD ran at 10,000rpm while the rest at 7,200rpm and 5,900rpm.
As for the voltages, no. No I haven't.

Are the remaining 2 drives the same model drives? If so it could be the board on the HD that is dead. If it is making sounds when you shake it it may not be entirely abnormal. If the drives are the same model and have the same firmware revision and you do not mind gambling, you need to get yourself some security hex bits think I just used a #7 on an old WD drive and swap the boards. See if that gets the old drive to spin up. And whatever you do, DO NOT shake the drive anymore.